CMUS 218 Commercial Music Production and Audio

This course provides training in studio production techniques. Students learn studio miking for instruments and voice, digital audio workstations, and general techniques for studio production.

Those who pursue music as a career often need skills in miking, mixing, and music production. This is particularly true for those training in commercial music. This course will prepare the student to produce demos of his or her music and to engage appropriately with music production technology.

No details available.

After reading the Course Syllabus and Student Expectations, the student will complete the related checklist found in the Course Overview.

Discussions are collaborative learning experiences. Therefore, the student will participate in 1 Discussion in this course. The student will post a thread of at least 250-300 words. The student must reply to two of his or her classmates. Each reply must be at least 150 words. For each thread, the student must support his or her assertions with at least one scholarly citation in Turabian format. Each reply must incorporate at least one scholarly citation in Turabian format. Any sources cited must have been published within the last five years. Acceptable sources include the textbook, the Bible, and industry publications and/or websites.

The student will be assigned a collaborative project in which he or she mics instruments and voice, uses basic Pro Tools skills, mixes audio, and produces a song demo recording.

Quiz: Project Song Choice

The student will register his or her song choice by completing a 1-question quiz.

Project: Check-In Assignments (3)

These assignments will provide an opportunity for the student to receive instructor feedback on each project stage to improve the quality of the submissions and address any specific areas, with time to make corrections before the final submission.

Project: Instrumental Track Assignment

The student will ensure progress through the course project by completing a music track as the first stage. This assignment is intended to have the instrumental production completed as the student moves into vocals and mixing in future project stages.

Project: Vocal Comp Assignment 

As the second stage of the course project, this assignment is based on real-world scenarios and techniques for capturing and editing vocals in the music production process. The student will be able to apply the techniques learned in this assignment to his or her future professional work. The general workflows and editing within Pro Tools will translate to other digital audio workstation software.

Project: Final Assignment

For the third and final stage of the project, this assignment exactly models how a student may submit his or her creative content to a potential client such as a producer, publisher, record label, etc.

(CLO: A, B, C, D)

Quizzes will be given on a regular basis to test understanding of assigned Learn items. Quizzes are open book, open notes. Questions will be true/false, multiple choice, and multiple answer with a time limit of 1 hour. Each quiz may be attempted twice, with the highest score counting towards the grade. (CLO: A, B, C)

A final exam will be given to assess each student’s knowledge and skill in audio production. The quiz includes multiple-choice, true/false, and multiple-answer questions. The open book/open note quiz is limited to 2 hours. Projects will be reviewed and graded during the Final Exam time. Attendance is required. (CLO: A, B, C, D)